Conventionally, oxygen therapy of supplying oxygen is performed on a patient having problems in the respiratory system, and for example, oxygen generated by an oxygen tank or the like, or oxygen concentrated by an oxygen concentrating device including an adsorbent material such as molecular sieve or the like is supplied to the patient using a nasal cannula, mask or the like. The oxygen supplied from the oxygen tank barely contains moisture, and thus the inside of the respiratory tract needs to be prevented from becoming dry when supplying oxygen into the respiratory tract such as the nasal cavity of the patient. A humidifying device is thus arranged in the middle of the oxygen supplying tube to supply humidified oxygen.
In the oxygen treatment, a nebulizer (aerosol) and a humidifier (humidifying unit) are known for the humidifying device used to humidify the oxygen. These humidifying devices have a configuration of including a bottle (container) for accommodating solution dissolved with medicinal agent, and liquid such as sterilized water, purified water, distilled water, normal saline solution, and the like; and a dedicated humidifying device adapter (nebulizer adapter or humidifier adapter) to be connected to the bottle. The nebulizer or the humidifier are used according to the treatment policy on the patient. The nebulizer is a humidifying device configured to supply oxygen gas into the humidifying device adapter to take in air when aspirating the sterilized water accommodated in the bottle, humidify the gas having high oxygen concentration with the aspirated sterilized water as microscopic aerosol, and supply the humidified gas to the patient. The humidifier, on the other hand, is a humidifying device configured to discharge air or oxygen gas having high oxygen concentration into the sterilized water in the bottle to humidify the gas, and supply the humidified gas to the patient by guiding the humidified gas to outside the bottle.
The nebulizer and the humidifier are different in the mechanism of humidifying the gas but are common in using the bottle accommodating the sterilized water, and thus the bottle is preferably used in common. Patent document 1 discloses a commonly used bottle, that is, a bottle (container) capable of being used for the nebulizer or for the humidifier.
As shown in FIG. 12, the container disclosed in patent document 1 includes a bag main body 101 that accommodates the sterilized water; a first mouth portion 102 that is sealably attached to an upper part of the bag main body 101 and that introduces the oxygen into the bag main body 101, a dip tube 103 that guides the oxygen introduced from the first mouth portion 102 into water, and a second mouth portion 104 that is sealably attached to the upper part of the bag main body 101 and that feeds the oxygen added with moisture obtained on the water surface to outside.
When using the container 100 as a container for the nebulizer, a socket portion 111 of a nebulizer adapter 110 is screw-fitted and connected to the first mouth portion 102 of the container 100, and a drain tube 112 of the nebulizer adapter 110 is connected to the second mouth portion 104 of the container, as shown in FIG. 13(a).
When using the container as a container for the humidifier, on the other hand, a humidifier adapter 120 is fitted to the first mouth portion 102 to communicate with an oxygen supply source (not shown), and a tube (not shown) is connected to the second mouth portion 104 to supply the oxygen added with moisture to the patient, as shown in FIG. 13(b). The oxygen gas supplied from the oxygen supply source is discharged into the water in the container through the dip tube 103 to be humidified, and then supplied to the patient through the second mouth portion 104 and the tube (not shown).